Dispensing container



July 24, 1934. P. l.. ANDREWS DIsPENsING CONTAINER Filed Sept. 15. 1933' 2 Sheets-Sheet l July 24, 1934.

P. L. ANDREWS 1,967,278 DISPENSING CONTAINER Filed Sept. 15, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR RzesznZf-.ndramfj /3 BY Patented July 24, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1,967,278 msPENslNG CONTAINER Application September 15, 1933, Serial No. 689,583

6 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in dispensing containers; and the invention has reference, more particularly, to a container having means to measure and discharge a predetermined lamount of the contained material at will.

The invention has for its principal object to provide in a container, adapted to package owable granular, flaky or pulverant material, means to segregate from the contained mass thereof a predetermined or measured small quantity, together with means to guide such segregated quantity to an outlet opening for discharge therefrom.

The invention has for a further object to provide, in a container of the kind above mentioned,

a novel means to form an initially closed discharge opening, said means being inwardly displaceable from closed relation to the container.

to open the discharge opening and to cooperate with material guide means for deflecting outwardly therefrom and through said opening a measured quantity of material desired to be dispensed.

The invention has for a further object to provide a container having the characteristics .above referred to in the form of a flatly collapsible carton or box.

Other objects of this invention, not at this time more particularly enumerated, will be understood from the following detailed description of the same.

An illustrative embodiment of this invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in .which:-

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a blank from which the novel container according to this invention may be formed; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the blank with portions thereof adapted to provide the material measuring and discharge guide means disposed in operative relation to the interior side of the blank.

Fig. 3 is a face elevation of a carton or box produced from the blank shown in Figs. 1 and 2, parts being broken away to disclose interior structure as operatively related thereto; Fig. 4 is a vertical longitudinal section, taken on line 4-4 in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a view similar to that of Fig. 4, but showing the carton or box as positioned to discharge a measured quantity from the mass of material contained therein; Fig. 6'

is a horizontal section, taken on line 6-6 in Fig. 3, but drawn on an enlarged scale; and Fig. 7 is a horizontal section, taken on line 7-7 in Fig. 3 and also drawn'on an enlarged scale.

Similar characters of reference are employed in the above described views, to indicate correspending parts.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawings, the blank therein shown from which the container may be formed comprises a sheet of suitable material such as pasteboard, paper or the like, and is divided in its main section by vertical folding creases or score lines 10 into a series of four laterally connected side panels 11, 12, 13 and 14. Extending from the opposite ends of each said side panels and divided therefrom by the horizontal folding creases or score lines 15 are top end aps 16 and bottom end flaps 16. Extending from the outer margin ofthe side panel 14 and preferably coextensive therewith, being divided therefrom by the vertical folding crease or score line 17 is anauxiliary blank section from which may be formed the material measuring and discharge guide means of the box or carton. This auxiliary section is divided into three wall panels 18, 19 and 20 by vertical folding creases or score lines 21. Extending from the outer margin of the wall panel 20, being divided therefrom by the vertical folding crease or score line 22, is an anchor strip 23, the same being cutaway, as @a at 24, to straddle a discharge opening with which the side panel 14 is provided, as will subsequently be explained. At their lower end portions, the wall panels 19 and 20 are each cutaway to provide the respective upwardly indented access 35 openings 25 and 26. Formed in connection with the side panel 14, adjacent to its outer margin and as an integral part thereof, is a closure tab 27 to normally close a discharge opening 28 which is formed by displacing said tab 27 from the plane 90 of said side panel 14. Said closure tab 27 is bounded at its upper end by a bending crease or score line 29 and at its sides and bottom end by perforate or rouletted lines 30, whereby, when it is desired to produce the discharge opening 28, said tab 27 may be torn loose at its sides and bottom from the body of said side panel 14, and then displaced from the plane of the latter by the tab bending along the bending crease or score line 29.

In forming the box or carton from the above described blank, the wall panels and anchor strip of the auxiliary section are successively folded along the adjoining folding creases or score lines and inwardly relative to the inner surface oi' the 105 side panel 14 of the main section to form a tubular structure coextensive with said side panel 14, in the manner shown in Fig. 2. When said auxiliary section is thus formed, the anchor strip 23 meets the inner face of said side panel 14 and is 110 adhesively or otherwise secured thereto. The cutaway `portion 24 of said anchor strip straddles the closure tab 27 which normally closes and deiines the discharge opening 28, so that the latter, when opened, communicates with the tubular passage 31 provided by the thus formed auxiliary blank section. After the auxiliary section of the blank is thus positioned and secured, the side panels of the main section of the blank are successively foldetl along their intermediate folding creases or score lines 10 to form the hollow main body of the container, with the longitudinal marginal portion of the'side panel 11 meeting or overlapping the outer surface of the wall panel 18 of the tubular structure formed by said auxiliary blank section, the former being adhesively or otherwise secured to the latter. The bottom end flaps 16' are now closed over the bottom end of the hollow body thus formed and adhesively or otherwise secured one to another, thereby completing the main interior chamber 32 of the container ready for lling through its upper open end. When the main chamber 32 of the container is lled with the desired granular or like material 33, the top end flaps 16 are closed and adhesively or otherwise secured one to another, and the package is complete and ready for commercial handling and distribution.

In the hands of the consumer, the manner of using the container to dispense therefrom measured quantities segregated from the bulk of the material contained therein is as follows:-

To open the discharge opening 28, the user presses inwardly upon the closure tab 27 with the thumb or finger to thereby break away the sides and bottom margins thereof, along the rouletted lines 30, from initial connected relation to the side panel 14, thus freeing the closure tab for inswinging movement about the line of bend defined by the bending crease or score line 29 bounding its upper end. When the closure tab is thus freed from connected relation to the side panel 14, it is pushed inwardly to dispose the same across the passage 31 of the measuring and discharge guide means, to incline from an interior wall panel 19 of the latter to the discharge opening 28. The width of the closure tab 2'? is slightly greater than the width of said passage 31 so that, when pushed inwardly and across the latter, the side margins of the closure tab will frictionally engage the inner surfaces of the wall panels 18 and 20, whereby the closure tab is retained in inwardly swung and inclined position described. When the container stands upon its bottom end, the granular or like material 33 which fills the main interior chamber 32 thereof, will flow through the access openings 25 and 26 into the interior of the measuring and discharge passage 31, rising in the latter to substantially the top of said access' openings 25 and 26, as shown in Figs.

" 3 and 4. The material thus entered in the measuring and discharge passage 31 constitutes a predetermined measured quantity 33' which is alone subject to discharge from the container. The volume of the thus segregated quantity of material is governed by two factors, one the crosssectional area of the passage 31 and the height of the access openings 25 and 26. Variations in the dimensions of these factors will vary the volume of material desired to constitute a predetermined measured quantity which can be dispensed at each discharging operation. While I have shown, both/the wall panels 19 and 20, which are in exposed contiguous relation to the main interior chamber 32 of the container, as provided with an access opening communicating with the measuring and discharge passage 31. it will be understood, that the access opening may be omitted from one such wall panel leaving but a single opening, or the access opening may extend across the angle of the wall panels 19 and,20, or the tubular structure constituting the measuring and discharging means may have its entire bottom end spaced a desired distance from the closed bottom end of the container, any of these arrangements being equivalent'to the specific arrangement illustrated, and equal in the function of admitting a predetermined quantity of material from the main interior of the container to said measuring and discharge passage. To deliver the thus segregated predetermined quantity 33' out of the container, it is only necessary to invert the latter, in the manner shown in Fig. 6 of the drawings. When the container is thus inverted the main bulk of the material 33 lodged in the interior chamber 32 gravitates away from the access openings25 and 26, while the measured quantity 33 lodged within the measuring and discharge guide passage 31 is guided by the latter, in gravitating therethrough, into engagement with the in-swung closure tab 27 which i 5 From the above it will be obvious that a very l simple and efficient container is provided, adapted to dispense predetermined minor quantities of material from the main mass thereof enclosed in the container. While I have shown the container as constructed in the form of a collapsible carton, it will be realized that I do not, as to the broad aspects of my invention, limit the principles of its construction to containers of this type, since the measuring and dispensing features, and their structural characteristics, may well be embodied in other types of boxes of the non-folding as Well as of the folding or collapsible form, and as made of cardboard, paper, wood, metal or any other suitable material.

I am aware that various other changes could be made in the above described constructions, and that widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof; it is therefore intended that all matter contained in the above descripton and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a hunting sense.

I claimz- I 1. A container for dispensing predetermined minor quantities from the bulk of material contained therein, comprising a closed main body, means providing a material measuring and discharge passage within said body extending intermediate opposite walls of the latter andA contiguous to an exterior wall extending between. said opposite walls, said passage means having material access means communicating between its interior and the interior of said main body,

adjacent one end of said passage means, said exterior wall having a discharge opening removed from said material access means for communicating with the interior of said passage means, and a closure means normally closing said discharge opening but displaceable therefrom and into said passage means.

2. A container for dispensing predetermined minor quantities from the bulk of material contained therein, comprising a closed main body, means providing a material measuring and discharge passage within said body extending intermediate opposite walls of the latter and contiguous to an exterior wall extending between said opposite walls, said passage means having material access means communicating between its interior and the interior of said main body adjacent one end of said passage means, said exterior wall having a discharge opening removed from said material access means for communicating with the interior of said passage means, a closure tab for said discharge opening integral with said exterior wall and having portions of its margins detachably connected with the latter to initially close said discharge opening, and said closure tab being adapted to be pushed inwardly across said passage means to both open said discharge opening and to frictionally engage the inner walls of said passage means to thereby shunt material dispensed from said passage means outwardly through said discharge opening.

3. A container for dispensing predetermined minor quantities from the bulk of material contained therein, comprising a main body having end and side walls, means providing a material measuring and discharge passage extending between said end walls and contiguous to a side wall, said passage means having at its lower end means to give access thereinto of a minor quantity of material from the main bulk of material contained in said main body interior, said side wall contiguous to said passage means having adjacent to the upper end of the latter a discharge opening to communicate with the passage means, a closure tab for said discharge opening integral with said side wall and having portions of its margins detachably connected with the latter to initially close said discharge opening, and said closure tab being adapted to be pushed inwardly across said passage means to both open said discharge opening and being of such dimensions as to frictionally engage the inner walls of saidpassage means to thereby shunt material dispensed from said passage means outwardly through said discharge opening.

4. A container, comprising a main body, means to provide a material measuring and discharge passage segregated from the interior of said body and disposed in an interior angle thereof to extend between its bottom and top end walls, said passage means having at its lower end contiguous to the body bottom wail access means comprising openings in two walls thereof communicating with the body interior to govern the admission thereinto of minor quantities ci.' material from the bulk of the latter contained in said body interior, an outer lateral wall oi said container body having aI discharge opening for communication with the upper end portion of said passage means,- a closure tab for said discharge opening integral with said lateral wall and having its side and bottom margins detachably connected with the latter to linitially close said discharge opening, and said closure tab being of slightly greater width than the width of said passage means and being adapted to be pushed inwardly across said passage means for frictionally engaging the walls of the latter to thereby shunt material dispensed from said passage means outwardly through said discharge opening when the main body is inverted.

5. A container of the kind described in the form of a collapsible carton, comprising a main section consisting in connected side panels and end closing flaps to form a hollow main body, an auxiliary section connected contiguous to one of said side panels and comprising connected wall panels adapted to be folded and secured to form a tubular member disposed within the interior of said main body contiguous to at least one side panel thereof and to extend between the ends of said main body when closed by its end flaps, said tubular member providing a material measuring and discharge passage, said auxiliary section having access means affording communication between the interior of said main body and said passage at the normally lower end of the latter, said access means being adapted to govern the admission into said passage of minor quantities of material from the bulk of the latter contained in said main body interior, said tubular member having a cutaway portion in the upper end portion thereof and means connected with an outer wall of said main body and aligned with the cutaway portion of said tubular member to provide a normally closed discharge opening for communication with the upper end portion of said passage.

6. A container of the kind described in the form of a collapsible carton, comprising a main section consisting in connected side panels and end closing iiaps to form a hollow main body, an auxiliary section connected contiguous to one of said side panels and comprising connected wall panels adapted to be folded and secured to form a tubular member disposed within the interior of said main body contiguous to at least one side panel thereof and to extend between the ends of said main body when closed by its end flaps.

said tubular member providing a material measuring and discharge passage, said auxiliary section having access means affording communication between the interior of said main body and said passage at the normally lower end of the latter, said access means being adapted to m govern the admission into said passage of minor quantities of material from the bulk of the latter contained in said main body interior, a side panel of said main body contiguous to said passage having a discharge opening for communication with the latter, a closure tab for said discharge opening'integral with said side panel and having portions oi' its margin detachably connected with the latter to initially close said discharge opening, and said closure tab being adapted to be pushed inwardly across said passage to both open said discharge opening and to deect material delivered through said passage outwardly through the discharge opening when the main body is inverted. y

PRESTON L. ANDREWS. 

